Shaka Smart of VCU the hottest name in coaching (Video)

Virginia Commonwealth’s shocking 71-61 win over top-seeded Kansas to reach the Final Four is drawing a ton of attention to the Richmond school and its 33-year-old coach, Shaka Smart, whose high-energy “havoc” defense left some Jayhawks struggling to catch their breath.

Smart’s background has some parallels with Barack Obama’s. He has a black father from overseas (Trinidad) who named him after the African tribal leader Shaka Zulu, and

was raised by his white mother in Madison, Wis. Also like Obama, he combined brains and basketball as a teenager. Smart turned down Harvard to attend Kenyon College, where he is the all-time leader in assists. After graduation, he quickly rose up the coaching ranks as an assistant at Dayton and Florida, becoming head coach at VCU in 2009.

His salary is $325,000, compared to $3 million for Kansas’ Bill Self. The relatively low pay makes him an obvious target for schools from the power conferences, though VCU plans to open its wallet. “We’re going to keep him,” athletic director Norwood Teague said.

The writer J.M Tyree wrote in wry fashion about his brother’s sudden fame on Slate:

I realize my brother has moved into a new phase of sports celebrity when his name-Shaka Smart-becomes a trending topic on Twitter, right alongside Rebecca Black. His name is being inserted into spam tweets from China (“ShakaSmart International IQ Test … Play Free Online”), and women are posting comments about … well, you know. A Tennessee Volunteers fan, whose team is in the market for a hot young coach, jokingly speculates on the fact that Shaka wore an “orange tie” against Purdue. (Actually, the tie was golden.) A confused Brazilian asks, in Twitter Portuguese, “Does anyone know what is Shaka Smart?”

Richmond is also having fun at the expense of ESPN loudmouth basketball analyst Dick Vitale, who on Selection Sunday berated the NCAA for letting VCU into the tournament. (The Rams were an 11th seed that had to play an extra game against USC just to get to the round of 64). A banner at the city’s airport reads “Eat Crow Baby!“